"Picturing Afghanistan is an in-depth account of the Euro-American visualization of the conflict in Afghanistan. Comparing images in public affairs, psychological warfare, journalism and the photobook, the author argues that there are no strong boundaries between photography in war and photography a
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bout war. He shwos how and when the media have adopted, extended and counterframed the public affairs discourse of militarism and humanitarianism, and how and when public affairs rely on the aesthetic codes of photojournalism. Instead of enforcing a unified interpretation, the author considers photography's ambiguous and contradictory aspects. It is argued that, even within the conventionalized genre of photojournalism, photographs of conflict do not merely promote unity and social cohesion but express anxieties associated with the breakdown of imagined communities." (Back cover)
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"In der medialen Repräsentation von Migrantinnen überwiegt das Klischee des hilfsbedürftigen, weiblichen Opfers, das dem Rollenmodell der westlichen, emanzipierten Frau gegenübergestellt wird [...] Die Lokalpresse mit alltagsweltlichen Bezügen einerseits, die Boulevardmedien mit Fokus auf Berü
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hmtheiten andererseits stellen Lebensentwürfe und Rollenkontexte von Migrantinnen vielfältiger dar: als Nachbarinnen, als Erfolgreiche, als Prominente. Die dominante Grundstruktur bleibt jedoch bestehen: Migrantinnen werden als Andere, als Fremde markiert - und selten als 'normale' Bürgerinnen wahrgenommen." (Klappentext)
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"For Al Jazeera English (AJE), the Arab revolutions of 2011 offered an opportunity that news executives dream about. It was the biggest story of the century, it was happening on home territory, and the channel had the expertise and the reportorial staff on the ground at levels its competitors could
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not match. For English speakers around the world, AJE was the indispensable, go-to source of information about what was happening in the streets of Tunis, Cairo, Sanaa, and elsewhere in the suddenly rebellious region." (Publisher description)
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"Zimbabwean journalists and civil society activists in the diaspora have employed humour not merely to mock or ridicule but to conscientize people, and to raise attention for and awareness of the situation in Zimbabwe, including the social, economic and political realities and everyday life concerns
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and hardships experienced by ordinary people in the country. This article explores how diasporic Zimbabweans have made use of the freedoms in their current locations and of new media and other means to express their dissatisfaction with the Zimbabwean government and the state of affairs in their home country through satire and related forms of political humour. This article focuses particularly on the dissemination of cartoons and satirical messages from liberal host countries through the Internet. It is argued that political humour in the Zimbabwean diaspora has a counter-discursive function and serves as a ‘medium of communicating dissent’." (Abstract)
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"The Arab Spring represents a breaking point in the cooperation between the pan-Latin American satellite television TeleSUR and Al-Jazeera. Even if in February TeleSUR firmly condemned the closure by Egyptian authorities of the Al-Jazeera Cairo offices, NATO military intervention in Libya and the be
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ginning of protests in Syria provoked an important change in TeleSUR coverage of the Arab Spring. This shift coincided with a departure from the Al-Jazeera network, sanctioning the possible end of a collaboration that always had strong political connotations. TeleSUR joined the cause of the protesters in the coverage of the Egyptian and Tunisian uprisings, meanwhile it took what we can refer to as an “ideological approach” in the coverage of the uprisings after the international intervention in Libya, implicitly embracing the official media version of the Arab regimes. This stance sparked controversy especially within grassroots Latin American movements, igniting a strong debate mainly visible on the web. At an international level, the undeclared departure from the Al-Jazeera network reflects the future split between leftist Latin American governments, who embrace and fund the multi-state TV network TeleSUR, and the forces that will come out from the Arab Spring. Finally, the Arab Spring represented a missing opportunity for TeleSUR to play an important role in global media, and not only for a national or regional audience. Indeed, TeleSUR gave more importance to the political interests of the channel’s founders, than in pursuing a balanced information out of ideological interests or geopolitical strategies." (Abstract)
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The general analysis of this Yearbook is divided into three parts. The first is an introductory chapter that contains a comparative synthesis of fiction in the Obitel countries. This comparison is made from a quantitative and qualitative point of view that makes it possible to observe the developmen
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t of fiction in each country, highlighting their main productions, as well as the topic of the year: “Quality in television fiction”. In the second part there are eleven chapters (one for each country), with an internal structure where the Yearbook sections are usually fixed, though some are more specific than others. The sections that make up each of the chapters are the following: 1. The country’s audiovisual context; 2. Analysis of premiere fiction; 3. Transmedia Reception; The most outstanding productions of the year; 5. Finally, there is the Topic of the Year, which in this issue is: Trasnationalization of Television Fiction. This phenomenon, which is at the same a growing tendency, is received in three dimensions: 1. The transnational element “behind” the screen, where we present a media ownership index in each country; 2. The transnational element “on” the screen, by locating the origin of the stories for the premiere Top Ten, the casting and the production locations; 3. The transnational element “beyond” the screens, where we place the import and export flows of the fiction products in the OBITEL countries. The third part is an Appendix.
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"Zoroastrians are an ancient ethnic-religious community that goes back to the prophet Zarathustra. Today they number some 120,000 people, based in India/Pakistan and Iran; diaspora communities are settled in North America, the United Kingdom, Australia. On the Indian sub-continent, where Zoroastrian
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s are known as ‘Parsis’, communities are ageing quickly, due in particular to a low fertility rate and massive outmigration. Projections show there will be virtually no more Zoroastrians in Pakistan in a few decades, and figures in India may drop to 20,000 individuals by 2050. For such a scattered community, the Internet represents a unique platform to discuss community matters and bring together far-flung groups. Zoroastrians use the Web and other digital media to organize themselves and remain connected to their homeland. This e-diaspora not only highlights some traditional characteristics of Zoroastrian communities, it intertwines with the apparition of a new leadership. It also accelerates the emergence of a universal conception of what it is to be Zoroastrian, transforming the Zoroastrian socio-cultural and religious identity and reshaping past and present divisions." (Abstract)
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"Hindu nationalists defend the advent of a Hindu state in India, while projecting the universal appeal of their ideology. Their very territorialised yet universal claims have been finding particular resonance among migrant populations, particularly in North America. This study strives to go beyond c
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ontent analyses that foreground voices to focus on the network structure in order to highlight the new transnational practices of nationalism. Two main points emerge from this in-depth scrutiny. On the one hand, Hindu nationalist organisations have transferred their online activities mainly to the USA, where the Indian diaspora is 3.2 million strong and constitute therefore a prime example of long-distance transnationalist nationalism. On the other hand, the morphological discrepancies between the online and the offline networks point to new strategies of discretion developed to evade the gaze of authorities in countries of residence. The recourse to such cartographies thus becomes crucial not only in understanding what sectarian or illegal movements do but also what they seek to hide." (Abstract)
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"The analysis is based on interviews with 35 media experts and news producers at major Ukrainian broadcasting organizations, as well as from print and online media. The interviewees (editors-in-chief, heads of international news’ departments, foreign correspondents) were asked about the process of
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international news production in their editorial offices, the human and technical resources allocated for foreign news coverage, the professional standards of international journalism, as well as the main sources of foreign news and criteria of their selection involved in the news making process. An important finding of the presented research is the conclusion about indirect, or circuitous movement of foreign news from international news agencies to the Ukrainian media. Because of the peculiarities of Ukrainian news production described in the paper, news from Reuters or Associated Press regularly reaches Ukrainian editorial offices after it has been processed by Russian newsmakers." (Abstract)
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"Der Beitrag zeichnet die Konsolidierung des Forschungsfeldes der grenzüberschreitenden Medienkommunikation im deutschsprachigen Raum nach. Die Gastherausgeber unterscheiden vier zentrale Zugangsweisen zum Thema: (a) die Erweiterung des Ländervergleichs um intersystemische Einflüsse, (b) die endo
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gene Theorieerweiterung, bei der kommunikations- und medienwissenschaftliche Konzepte wie „Öffentlichkeit“ oder „Medienevent“ auf grenzüberschreitende Phänomene übertragen und dabei inhaltlich verändert werden, (c) der Theorieimport, insbesondere aus der Soziologie und den Kulturwissenschaften, einschließlich einer Übernahme der Kritik am „methodologischen Nationalismus“, sowie (d) das Hineinwirken von Regionalexpertise, etwa über den arabischen Raum, in die Kommunikations- und Medienwissenschaft. Sodann zeigt der Beitrag auf, wie sich im Zusammenwachsen dieser Zugangsweisen Synergien zwischen einer Semantik des „Inter“ (Grenzüberschreitung zwischen bestehenden nationalen oder kulturellen Einheiten) und einer Semantik des „Trans“ (Grenzüberwindung als Prozess der Verwischung vormals bestehender Einheiten) herausbilden." (Abstract)
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"Kommunikative Grenzüberschreitungen finden auch im Hinblick auf Marktstrukturen und Managementstrategien von Medienunternehmen statt. Bei solchen grenzüberschreitenden Aktivitäten stehen aus medienökonomischer Perspektive strukturelle Zusammenhänge zwischen Beschaffungs- und Absatzmärkten sow
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ie zwischen Medienmanagementstrategien und Medienorganisationen in ländervergleichender Perspektive im Vordergrund. Analysen zu grenzüberschreitenden Medienmärkten und Medienprodukten mangelt es ebenso wie solchen zu medienunternehmerischen Strategien und Transaktionen an theoretischer Fundierung. Dieser Beitrag verfolgt daher das Ziel, ein Modell rekursiver Beziehungen zwischen Marktstrukturen und Managementstrategien vorzustellen. Im Verlauf der Darstellung werden die verschiedenen Ebenen grenzüberschreitender Medienkommunikation in medienökonomischer Perspektive anhand einer Aufarbeitung des Forschungsstandes begrifflich schärfer gefasst. Dazu gehören die drei zentralen ökonomischen Entitäten grenzüberschreitender Medienkommunikation: Märkte, Unternehmen und Produkte. Dies betrifft auch Unterscheidungen von Beschaffungs-, Publikums- und Werbemärkten und diejenigen von Information, Unterhaltung und Werbung, da sowohl Märkte wie Produkte unterschiedliche strukturelle Prämissen bei Grenzüberschreitungen bilden. Auf dieser Grundlage wird ein Medienmarkt- / Medienunternehmensmodell vorgestellt, mit dem rekursive Beziehungen zwischen Märkten und Unternehmen erfasst werden können. In Verbindung mit Ressourcentheorien und den Strukturmodalitäten grenzüberschreitender Medienaktivitäten entsteht ein Modell, mit dem die abschließend diskutierten Prozessdimensionen grenzüberschreitender Aktivitäten untersucht werden können." (Abstract)
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"This report has established that the jamming of Persian-language satellite TV channels is endemic in Iran, and is having adverse effects on both broadcasters and viewers alike. In Iran, satellite television is one of the few sources of news, entertainment, and commentary not controlled by the count
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ry’s authorities; it is, therefore, an important source for Iranians, many of whom desire opinions, information, and entertainment beyond what is provided by the state-run media." (Page 64)
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